Speaker 1: Life Audio.
Speaker 2: Hey there, and welcome to another prayer through the Psalms
Speaker 2: episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
Speaker 2: I'm very.
Speaker 1: Very excited to be with you.
Speaker 2: You may not know it, but it's been a while
Speaker 2: since I've recorded a psalm. I did a few kind
Speaker 2: of in a batch because I knew I was going
Speaker 2: to be busy and away from the computer, and I'm
Speaker 2: so happy to be back. I love this time with you.
Speaker 2: It is sacred and special and set apart and makes
Speaker 2: me slow down and I'm going to be fully transparent
Speaker 2: with you. I'm not always happy about it. There are
Speaker 2: times when I know I have psalms to record and
Speaker 2: I think, oh my goodness, that's going to take a lot.
Speaker 2: Because it does. It sounds counterintuitive, but as a fellow human,
Speaker 2: you know, it takes energy to slow down.
Speaker 1: It takes effort to.
Speaker 2: Stop the grind, to take a step off the treadmill
Speaker 2: of life and meditate on God's word. And I'm going
Speaker 2: to also confess that I haven't been meditating outside of
Speaker 2: these psalms in the last few weeks on God's word
Speaker 2: like I should be.
Speaker 1: And it takes a toll. It steals energy.
Speaker 2: From us to give constantly to the demands of busyness,
Speaker 2: to pour ourselves into tasks and to do lists, and
Speaker 2: there's a time for them. A lot of it is
Speaker 2: just stuff that has to be done. But I believe
Speaker 2: that's why God created the Sabbath, and he knew that
Speaker 2: there is absolutely a time when we need to slow down.
Speaker 1: And not to mention.
Speaker 2: When we become disconnected from the vine, we start to wither.
Speaker 2: I see that in my one hundred degree Utah weather
Speaker 2: the last week. Is there was a section in our
Speaker 2: grape vine and they've been getting watered vine, but there
Speaker 2: was a section that I guess the wind had kind
Speaker 2: of blown off, and I.
Speaker 1: Couldn't tell it first.
Speaker 2: At first I went out there, and you know, everything
Speaker 2: looked great. And then a few days later I look
Speaker 2: and there's this whole like withered section, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: my goodness, there must be like a pest or an
Speaker 2: infestation of something, or a blight or I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know what affects grapes. I'm new to grape vines.
Speaker 2: And it was just that the wind had there'd been
Speaker 2: a vine that had been like growing kind of out
Speaker 2: from the others and just one section, but that part
Speaker 2: of the vine had gotten blown by the wind, I.
Speaker 1: Guess, and snapped.
Speaker 2: It had kind of like it still was attached, but
Speaker 2: it was crimped, and so basically it was effectively detached,
Speaker 2: not physically, but for all intents and purposes from the
Speaker 2: actual vine, which, if you know anything about grapes, the
Speaker 2: vine itself is this big, gnarly like brown tree, trunky
Speaker 2: kind of material, and then every year you cut it
Speaker 2: back so it looks dead. I was terrified the first
Speaker 2: time I did it two years ago, and it looks
Speaker 2: like it's all dead. But then in the spring at
Speaker 2: late spring, because I was scared for a while, but
Speaker 2: late spring you start to see these leaves emerge, and
Speaker 2: then you get these gigantic like tons of vines. It's
Speaker 2: crazy how much it produces every year. And all that
Speaker 2: to say that this one huge section of vine had
Speaker 2: been like new growth, had basically been cut off from
Speaker 2: the main vine because of being crimped over from the wind.
Speaker 1: So this entire section was just.
Speaker 2: Withered and gnarly and just crunchy crispy from totally dying.
Speaker 1: And that's us.
Speaker 2: It doesn't happen immediately, we might not even notice it.
Speaker 2: And for us, it's not necessarily days. I think it
Speaker 2: can be weeks and months and years of being sort
Speaker 2: of subtle crimped off from God, from the true vine.
Speaker 2: But it takes its toll, and I think from my experience,
Speaker 2: the enemy gets a foothold, and it actually when you
Speaker 2: get in a routine of business, it makes slowing down
Speaker 2: seem undesirable, and it makes the act of being in
Speaker 2: God's word feel boring in contrast. And I know that
Speaker 2: sounds harsh and terrible and sinful, and it is, but
Speaker 2: it's just what has happened to me at times. And
Speaker 2: so it took some effort to get me in front
Speaker 2: of this computer because I do have so much going
Speaker 2: on right now, and I'm sure all of you do too.
Speaker 2: But I really hope that you're able to just take
Speaker 2: some time each week, whether it's this podcast, whether it's
Speaker 2: another podcast, whether it's just sitting quietly with God with
Speaker 2: your own devotion, whatever it is, I hope you will
Speaker 2: take time. So I had the pressure of showing up
Speaker 2: for you, but without that external pressure, I honestly could
Speaker 2: see myself going weeks or months without truly slowing down
Speaker 2: and taking time with God. And so let this just
Speaker 2: be the reminder a. If this is how you feel,
Speaker 2: I'm just being real about it, because if you resonate
Speaker 2: with this truth, it's okay.
Speaker 1: Embrace it and take.
Speaker 2: It to God and say God, I kind of feel
Speaker 2: like reading your word is become a little bit boring.
Speaker 1: Help me.
Speaker 2: And I guarantee when you get to the place where
Speaker 2: you sit down and you actually read it, it will
Speaker 2: come alive again.
Speaker 1: God will speak to you through it.
Speaker 2: It will stoke those fires, those embers that have kind
Speaker 2: of gone cold, and God will breed life into your
Speaker 2: Bible reading, into your time with Him. So I didn't
Speaker 2: mean to go off on that tangent, but the Lord
Speaker 2: must have had something for you just through what I've
Speaker 2: been experiencing and going through. So today we are going
Speaker 2: to be talking about and praying through Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Do I hear the parents of.
Speaker 2: Young ish maybetween early teen children collectively sighing.
Speaker 1: With you know, six seven.
Speaker 2: I know that we've passed that, but I can't hear
Speaker 2: six and seven anymore without the six seven kind of
Speaker 2: echoing in my mind. So if that's you, get it
Speaker 2: out of your system, do the little hand motion, whatever
Speaker 2: you got to do.
Speaker 1: Psalm sixty seven.
Speaker 2: We're in it, and now we can focus.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 2: God, we just thank you for giving us your word.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the relationship that you extend to each
Speaker 2: one of us. I know that I take it for
Speaker 2: granted all the time, and I'm sorry. Thank you for
Speaker 2: taking us back with open arms when we take time
Speaker 2: away from spending time with you and reading your word
Speaker 2: and praying. I know there's a time for surface prayers,
Speaker 2: for the shout out prayers when we need you desperately,
Speaker 2: and the on the go prayers, but there's also definitely
Speaker 2: time for deep, meditative, contemplative prayer with you. And there's
Speaker 2: always time for reading your word and spending time slowing
Speaker 2: our brains down, giving us enough white space to hear back.
Speaker 2: Teach us how to do that better. Lord, I just
Speaker 2: pray for the body of Christ in this incredible, amazing
Speaker 2: and also terrible age of technology. Help us navigate it
Speaker 2: with grace, protect us from lasting damage. I look at
Speaker 2: our children and the next generations that come after us,
Speaker 2: and I'm burdened and scared. Frankly, I see what it's
Speaker 2: done to me, and I know what it must be
Speaker 2: doing to them. And we just pray God that in
Speaker 2: your mercy you would protect the body of Christ, protect
Speaker 2: our sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren and
Speaker 2: generations to come, until Christ returns from growing cold and
Speaker 2: distant because of technology, from growing isolated and shut off
Speaker 2: and self sufficient or seemingly self sufficient because of technology
Speaker 2: and the fast pace of the world around us, and
Speaker 2: the busyness that seems to have talents just gripping us
Speaker 2: and won't let go. The busyness that can be an
Speaker 2: idol that we can wear like a badge of honor,
Speaker 2: and we could trade because of what it gives us.
Speaker 2: For a relationship with you that takes a little bit
Speaker 2: of work and that takes time and takes patience and
Speaker 2: slowing down, that doesn't give us instant gratification, but is
Speaker 2: so much greater and more gratifying and satisfying than anything
Speaker 2: this world could offer. Take the blinders off, in Jesus' name,
Speaker 2: Take them off of ourselves, Take them off of our children,
Speaker 2: our grandchildren, generations to come. Help your people to see clearly,
Speaker 2: to be wise in how we use technology and how
Speaker 2: we allow ourselves to be sucked into the world. Let
Speaker 2: us be in the world, but not of the world
Speaker 2: and to know how to do that. It's hard, it's
Speaker 2: not easy, it's not straightforward. In Jesus' name, Amen, all right, Well,
Speaker 2: this is Psalm sixty seven the Nations exhorted to pray
Speaker 2: God for the choir director with stringed instruments, a psalm
Speaker 2: a song. And I have read that this is often
Speaker 2: attributed to David, even though it doesn't explicitly say so.
Speaker 2: Maybe it follows in some of his wording. I don't
Speaker 2: know who came to that conclusion and why, but that's
Speaker 2: what I read. This is a very short psalm, and
Speaker 2: it kind of touches on what I said in my prayer.
Speaker 2: It touches on God being a god not of a
Speaker 2: select view, but of everyone on earth. And that went
Speaker 2: in kind of flew in the face of the ancient
Speaker 2: world at that time, the worldview in that time that
Speaker 2: this was written, it was kind of thought that the
Speaker 2: gods were regional, that the people's gods were gods of them,
Speaker 2: and the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the
Speaker 2: god of Israel. Those are the people he chose. And
Speaker 2: a lot of these psalms of David, and I'm guessing
Speaker 2: because he is prophetic and inspired by the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 2: speak of a greater kingdom, and I love it. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: So the nations are exhorted to praise God. God be
Speaker 2: gracious to us and bless us, and cause his face
Speaker 2: to shine upon us. Selah, And I want to talk
Speaker 2: about that real quick, because that is actually borrowed from
Speaker 2: a previous passage in chapter six, verses twenty four to
Speaker 2: twenty six says the Lord bless you and keep you.
Speaker 2: The Lord make his face shine upon you, And it
Speaker 2: intentionally adapts this blessing and takes it beyond Israel. God
Speaker 2: be gracious to us collective, and bless us collectively, and
Speaker 2: cause his face to shine upon us, that your way
Speaker 2: may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.
Speaker 2: Let the peoples praise you, Oh God, Let all the
Speaker 2: peoples praise you. Let the nations and that word nations
Speaker 2: can be translated as tribes, nations, ethnic groups. So the
Speaker 2: Hebrew word is amim, and it means tribes, nations, and
Speaker 2: ethnic groups, not just Israel, very clearly, not just Israel.
Speaker 2: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for
Speaker 2: you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the
Speaker 2: nations on the earth. Selah, let the peoples praise you,
Speaker 2: Oh God, Let all the peoples praise you. The earth
Speaker 2: has yielded its produce. God, our God blesses us. God
Speaker 2: blesses us that all the ends of the earth may
Speaker 2: fear Him. And how beautiful is this. There's this whole
Speaker 2: big picture of God blesses everyone. And then it goes
Speaker 2: to in verse seven. God blesses us Israel, that all
Speaker 2: the ends of the earth may fear Him, and not
Speaker 2: fear like tremble in trepidation and turning away from but
Speaker 2: fear revere like every nieshell bow, every tongue confess. So
Speaker 2: our blessing is not just for us, but it will
Speaker 2: be for all nations. And God promised that to Abraham too.
Speaker 2: He said, you will be blessed, so that the world
Speaker 2: may in turn be blessed. Some of that blessing is
Speaker 2: through Jesus because he came through the line of Israel.
Speaker 2: But I firmly believe that it is a universal not universalism,
Speaker 2: but a universal blessing for all people. That Israel was
Speaker 2: blessed because there were more people in the sphere of
Speaker 2: Israel than just Israelites. There were people from all over
Speaker 2: the place. That's why they had laws and rules about
Speaker 2: how to treat foreigners, how to incorporate people in a
Speaker 2: way that displayed the glory of God but did not
Speaker 2: allow for people of Israel to be led astray to
Speaker 2: other gods. But there were other people that were influenced
Speaker 2: by Israel and that saw God's love for them, that
Speaker 2: saw their hygiene that was, you know, basically better. And
Speaker 2: it's not because they studied microbiology. It's because their laws
Speaker 2: came from God's mouth and he's the creator of the
Speaker 2: universe and this earth, and he knows how things work,
Speaker 2: their circumcision on a certain day and the actual hematology
Speaker 2: that means that that is the best day to do it.
Speaker 2: There's all kinds of wisdom in the way that the
Speaker 2: people of God, the people of Israel, were living that
Speaker 2: was supernaturally given for their benefit and to display God's
Speaker 2: trueness and realness and goodness to the people around them.
Speaker 2: And that transfers to us as Christians. We are blessed,
Speaker 2: not so we can stay in our self contained survival pod,
Speaker 2: but so that we can bless others within the body
Speaker 2: of Christ. And then so that we the body of
Speaker 2: Christ can bless others outside of the Body of Christ.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you I have been doing
Speaker 2: a bad job of this myself. It's been a struggle
Speaker 2: to get plugged in to our church here in Utah.
Speaker 2: We moved from Alaska a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 2: it's been hard. It's been really tough circumstances, our schedules
Speaker 2: have kind of been wagging the dog, and we've gotten
Speaker 2: back into it to a certain point, but we haven't
Speaker 2: gotten back to where I feel we are truly like
Speaker 2: an integral part, like we're actually cogs in the body
Speaker 2: of Christ in our local church. And you know, there
Speaker 2: are seasons, and I don't know that this isn't just
Speaker 2: a season, but there's part of me that feels like
Speaker 2: it's time to really start to move back into that
Speaker 2: because it's it's been too long that we've been kind
Speaker 2: of outsiders looking in. And it doesn't mean we're not
Speaker 2: part of the Body of Christ. I'm with you right now,
Speaker 2: or the Body of Christ. We're praying. I have other
Speaker 2: members of the Body that I'm friends with, that I
Speaker 2: serve with, that I speak with, that we encourage each other.
Speaker 2: But the local church is kind of the ground zero
Speaker 2: of how the Body of Christ can bless the world.
Speaker 2: And I love our church that we've become part of.
Speaker 2: They do so much outreach and blessing of the community,
Speaker 2: and not just our community, communities across the globe. They're
Speaker 2: very missional, very servant minded. So I'm proud and excited
Speaker 2: to be part of this Body of Christ. I'd like
Speaker 2: to be a little more connected though. Anyway, this is
Speaker 2: an episode of tangents, So I hope that.
Speaker 1: God spoke to you through this. I hope that you'll go.
Speaker 2: Back to some of these and glean your own things
Speaker 2: from it. I really hope that you're not just relying
Speaker 2: on my interpretation, because I've told you before, always check
Speaker 2: me theological and every other way, because I'm not a
Speaker 2: theologian and I'm imperfect. Read the word of God. Test
Speaker 2: it against truth that you know. I'm sorry, Test what
Speaker 2: I say against truth that you know based on the
Speaker 2: word of God. Don't test the word of God against
Speaker 2: things that you think you know. That's kind of backwards,
Speaker 2: and just take that time. I think the boiled down
Speaker 2: lesson for today for me is it's important to spend
Speaker 2: time with God. It's important to slow down. It's important
Speaker 2: to embrace his word, to meditate on it. And that
Speaker 2: doesn't mean just playing through this episode one time. I
Speaker 2: think it means going back, reading through yourself and saying, God,
Speaker 2: what do you have for me in this not some commentary,
Speaker 2: not some podcast host.
Speaker 1: What do you have for me?
Speaker 2: And do that not just with the stuff that we
Speaker 2: do together, but with your own stuff. All right, thank
Speaker 2: you for joining me, and I hope you have a
Speaker 2: wonderful week. And let's close in some prayer. Father, thank
Speaker 2: you again for this time. We just pray that you
Speaker 2: would help us to come out of this time with
Speaker 2: radiant faces after having come into your presence, that we
Speaker 2: would have been transformed through this time, that people would
Speaker 2: see us and would talk to us, and they would
Speaker 2: know that we've been with you. We just asked that
Speaker 2: you would continue to let these words ruminate in our
Speaker 2: minds and in our hearts, that this wouldn't be it,
Speaker 2: that it would just kind of stoke those embers that
Speaker 2: have gotten cold. Help them to just heat up. Give
Speaker 2: us a burning to meet with you, Give us a
Speaker 2: burning for your word to understand it better, to gain
Speaker 2: wisdom from it, to find hidden gems within the words.
Speaker 2: Of the Bible that speak to us in a new
Speaker 2: and true way. In Jesus' name, Amen, we'd like to
Speaker 2: take just a quick second to thank the team at
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